Collingwood president Eddie McGuire’s first phone call on Monday morning will be to AFL headquarters, demanding compensation for the “six-figure” sum lost to Collingwood as a result of its Sunday night fixture against Carlton that he described as “one of the greatest examples of vandalising a key event that I’ve seen in years.”

Just 40,936 people watched the Magpies beat the Blues in the game that started at 7.10pm, the lowest MCG crowd between the two clubs since 37,813 attended the 1921 semi-final.

Eddie McGuire at the MCG on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images

Around 13,000 people with reserved seats decided not to attend, and while that money will still end up at Collingwood, the crowd was around 10,000 less than the AFL had expected.

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The Sunday night timeslot - held on the eve of school holidays - was a trial ahead of discussions for the next broadcast rights, but the league said the crowd fell “well short” of the pass mark.

McGuire said even he had pondered whether he could address his president’s function by Skype, and wanted the lost dollars to come from the pockets of the officials who had scheduled his club to play on a Sunday night in the middle of winter, a timeslot that he said was never going to work.

Fed-up fans are voting with their feet in Melbourne. Photo: Getty Images

“It’s exactly the way we told them 12 months ago that it would be. Am I worried at the fact it’s probably cost us a couple of hundred thousand dollars? That’s equalisation money gone out the door,” he said.

“But more importantly for me, somewhere along the line, 35,000-40,000 people have not come to a game that is traditionally a great game. We used to get 40,000 people at Victoria Park.

“I know the AFL are not going to do this next year. But what we’ll do is we’ll take the money out of the AFL executives’ bonuses, those who did it, and send it to the Westpac Centre, because at nine o’clock and one second tomorrow, I’m going to be on the phone saying: compensation.

A crowd of just over 40,000 attend the round 15 AFL match between the Magpies and the Blues at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Photo: Getty Images

“We turn up, we’ve got the numbers, we pre-sold a lot of seats, so people have actually paid for their seats and not come. That’s not good for football.

“We’ve been screaming about it since the fixture came out. It won’t happen again. We will never play on a Sunday night in the middle of winter again, but it doesn’t help us or the people who didn’t turn up.”

McGuire was grateful for those supporters who did come to the game, and said they deserved an apology.

AFL Round 15, Carlton v Collingwood

“This is not a test to see what their endurance is. Make it easy for people. Life’s hard out there at the moment. Make it easy. Make the football the one thing in your life that’s great, not an ordeal,” he said.

“Don’t say it's school holidays, because most people who are working class people aren’t flying to Noosa tomorrow. They’re getting up and going to work tomorrow and this is what people have got to start understanding in football. It’s a working, family game and we’ve got to get back to that.”

AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the league had hoped for a crowd of 50,000.‘‘Our figures from tonight show that between the two clubs, there’s about 13,000 reserves seat holders who didn’t turn up,’’ Keane said.

‘‘The clubs get the money for those people but from our point of view, we want the people to attend.

‘‘We’ve said quite consistently this year we’re trialling a number of slots, Thursdays worked really well, Monday only had the one game and the crowds have trended down in the last couple of years.

‘‘Sunday night hasn’t had the response in the same way Thursday has.’’

Thursday trials in 6 locations have been well received but some 13000 reserved seat holders didn't attend tnite & AFL takes that msg onboard

59 comments

The lowest crowd in 90+ years between two massive clubs is a joke, right?

Commenter

Mark

Location

melb

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:30AM

Darryl, it goes withterritory, just ask the Bulldogs, North, Melbourne and St Kilda, or do Collingwood think that they are the only ones that count....suck it up princess

Commenter

GT

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:53AM

If only the smaller clubs could dictate their fixtures as McGuire's sworn to do with Collingwood's in the future. When for example did Collingwood last take their turn and play at Geelong? All clubs own the competition not just Collingwood.

Commenter

fred

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:10AM

every club puts in their request, and all clubs request playing Collingwood at the MCG, because they know they'll draw a big crowd and make more money.

Commenter

Mark

Location

melb

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:26AM

One rule for Collingwood, one for the rest. Classic bully mentality from Eddy.

Commenter

Wal

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:27AM

And when did Hawthorn, Richmond, Carlton or Essendon play there? It is too small for the bigger drawing clubs.This isn't about Collingwood it is about the AFL treating fans with contempt. If rusted on Collingwood and Carlton supporters won't show up at this ridiculous time-slot then it is a chance to show the AFL on behalf of all clubs that they can only push fans so far before they will turn away from the game.

Commenter

jaffa

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:39AM

Geelong make a lot of money playing their home games against Collingwood at the MCG.Anyway, the big issue isn't poorer clubs missing out on blockbuster games but that night games should be limited in Melbourne during the winter. Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night, scrap them.

Commenter

Trashman

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:47AM

jaffaSo why should crowd pulling ability dictate whether a club plays the hard games or not? If McGuire genuinely believed in fairness and equality of opportunity he'd be insisting Collingwood took it's turn playing at Geelong or playing Hawthorn in Tasmania but he doesn't believe in fairness except when it's his club that's been disadvantaged. He's never been heard to complain about the unfairness of other clubs playing interstate six or seven times a year while Collingwood and the other big clubs don't.

Commenter

fred

Date and time

June 30, 2014, 8:54AM

Nonsense jaffa.Crowd numbers are the justification for the big clubs not playing at Geelong. The real reason they don't play there is because the AFL wants as many of them as possible to make the finals and their almost guaranteed loss at Geelong makes that just a bit harder. Geelong has won about 50 of their last 53 down there and how many of those games were against power clubs? 24 walk up points a season for Geelong against weaker clubs and the big ones get to play Geelong at neutral grounds. It's rigged jaffa and not just because of money and crowds.

30 Jun
The Collingwood side that plays Gold Coast this week may be missing its leading goalkicker, with the tight hamstring that forced Jamie Elliott out of Sunday night’s win over Carlton to be further assessed on Monday.

30 Jun
Collingwood chairman’s surely ambit claim for compensation from the AFL for missing thousands from Sunday night game has predictably gone down like a lead balloon with fans of virtually of every other club.